Keen for a weekend away, the Bidmead girls (my mum, sister and me) snapped up a deal for three nights in the style capital of Italy – Milan. It might have not have to romance of Rome, but it’s still in Italy, and that means….food!

A friend from work is from Milan, and she sent me off with an amazingly extensive list of must-dos and mainly, must eats (see her incredible list here…thanks, Giulia!). We headed to her recommend spot for the ‘best pizza in the city’ for our first dinner, a swanky cocktail and pizza bar called Dry.

Dry is distinctly different to the traditional Italian trattorias that line the streets of the city, marking itself out as a dimly lit, minimally decorated bar that serves up proper adult cocktails (not a piña colada in sight) and thin crust pizzas, beautifully topped with finely sliced cured meats, veg and fresh herbs.

Pizzas and vermouth at Dry

My sister is a veggie so we skipped the meat options, but this was no hardship. With a fresh courgette and basil pizza and a spinach, fior di latte cheese and tomato number, our pizza cravings were more than met, albeit it meatlessly. As my mum and sister sipped their classic Italian Aperol spritz’s, I went for a short, sweet red vermouth. Similar to a jäger mister, this still had a slightly medicinal note to it, but with a lighter, sweeter aftertaste.

The next day, we hit all the sights and after a morning moseying around the city, the strong midday sun beamed upon us and it was time for a pit stop. On my friend’s suggestion, we found the little side street behind the city’s impressive Duomo cathedral, on which the equally famous Milan landmark Luini is located.

Luini is a Milanese institution, serving up panzerotti; filled pockets of bread, sealed up and deep fried. A quick and cheap lunch option, I tried two panzerotti: one baked with anchovies, cheese and tomato and one deep fried, filled with spinach and ricotta.

Baked anchovy, cheese & tomato panzerotti

The baked panzerotti had a strong fishy flavour which verged on overwhelming, but was toned down by the melted cheese and tomato accompaniments inside the fresh warm bread. The fried ricotta cheese option, however, was a combination of sweet bread and savoury filling, which I didn’t like at all – if I wanted a sweet option, I would have chosen the Nutella one.

For Saturday’s dinner we headed to the traditional Italian trattoria Damn Atra’, another one of my friend’s suggestions. Located in the buzzing canalside area of Navigli, this restaurant is worlds (and decades) away from the hip, young joints that surround it, serving nothing but traditional Milanese dishes.

Saving all potential ordering doubts and distress, it seemed like the ‘done thing’ was to order the menu degustazione, a three-course meal with proper, Milanese classics. Very meat heavy, my mum and I opted for the menu, while my sister had tortellini di zucca for primi plati and a mixed vegetable and cheese grill for main.

Tortellini di zucca – pumpkin ravoli with sage

Tortelli is just another name for ravioli, and my sister’s first dish consisted of pumpkin filled pasta parcels, coated in a buttery, sage sauce. The sweetness of the pumpkin was brought out against the intense savoury taste of the sage, and the rich buttery sauce brought the flavours together perfectly.

What’s nervetti, you might ask? Looking deceptively like pickles, I probed them and knew something was not quite kosher. I asked the waitress what these curious jellied little nibbles were, and with a smile on her face she replied “nervetti!”.

Upon studying them closer, I saw their resemblance to bacon lardons, made the phonetical link and asked “nerves?”. “Yes! Nerve endings“.

Suspecting a translation fault, I later looked this up – nervetti are actually gelatinous cubes of pressed calf’s foot. Not the veins, but the extremities of the animal instead. Even for an offal enthusiast such as myself, this was an animal part too far. There’s a clear reason the Italians exported pizza and pasta and jellied animal feet stayed home.

Starter over and done with, and nerves safely off the table, what landed in front of me next can only be described as a real contender for an eating challenge, of professional standard. What could be more Milanese than it’s namesake dish? Presenting, my milanesa main.

Cotoletta alla milanese, hand added for scale

Full name going as Cotoletta alla Milanese, this is a thinly sliced fillet of veal, breaded and fried. Actually hugely popular in Argentina too, I’ve tried many a milanesa in my time, and despite loving my meat, this bashed and breaded beige beast has never been my dish of choice.

This milanesa was the size of a steamrolled baby bear, breaded and fried. My mum had gone for the far more manageable mondeghili , Milanese meatballs, although with the two dishes combined we had enough food to feed a family for a week.

Like a thinner, pork filled chicken nugget, my opinion on milanesas was not swayed by this version. With no sauce, it’s extremely bland as a dish. Although the meat wasn’t dry I found myself aggressively squeezing more lemon on top in search of some extra taste. I much preferred the Milanese meatballs, which had the crunch of the breadcrumbs on the outside and the soft, herb filled mincemeat on the inside.

Milanese meatballs, the ‘lighter’ option

However, Damn-Altra was exactly what I wanted for a Saturday night in Milan. As traditional as an upmarket trattoria could come, it was a definite education in traditional Milanese food, even if the end result may be that this just isn’t my favourite kind of meal.

Having learnt I wasn’t mad for a milanesa, more room was freed for pasta and pizza – no bad thing at all. On Sunday we headed out to visit Lake Maggiore, an hour away from Milan city. We took a boat trip to visit Isola Bella, after arriving at Isola dei Pescatore – our lunch spot.

The tiny island is filled with restaurants, all serving up fresh catches of the day as well as the classic and much loved Italian dishes – please no more veal milanesa, though. We sat down at a restaurant right on the lake’s front and started our lunch with a mix of grilled vegetables served with salsa verde and burrata.

Burrata is made from mozzarella and then filled with a curd cheese and fresh cream, and in this dish it was firm and perfectly rounded, yet under the weight of a fork the cheese oozed out its dense, dairy sustenance. Ignoring the Italian status quo and power ordering three first course primi plati dishes as mains, after our burrata we asked for mussels, spaghetti alla vongole (clam spaghetti) and linguine pescatore (seafood linguine).

Seafood spaghetti

Seafood linguine has long been a favourite of mine – it’s simple, not much more than tomato, garlic and fresh seafood. But when the seafood contingency of the dish is made up of whopper king prawns and meaty mussels, these simple flavours totally shine.

My sister had chosen the spaghetti alla vongole, which I never normally go for. Literally just a sauce of clams, garlic, white wine and olive oil, the clams were tiny yet bursting with flavour, happily swimming in their garlicy liquid. The mussels shared a similar sauce to the linguine, but in this dish it seemed slightly thicker and richer in flavour. All together this was a standout meal of the holiday, and the joy was…we still had room for dessert!

Many people associate tiramisu with overly boozy, soggy bottoms, although when properly done it can be light and soft, with subtle hints of alcohol and shavings of chocolate. Opting for this potted pick me up to round off our lunch, my mum and sister converted themselves into tiramisu fans with this rendition, which was distinctly booze-free but heavy on the chocolate, and topped with creme-brulee style shards of burnt sugar, which added a nice crunch to the whipped creamy filling.

Tiramisu on fisherman’s island

Despite such a huge lunch with a tiramisu on top, with an hour left in the lakeside town of Stresa before our train back to the city, I saw a pasticcicceria that looked like something out of a 1950’s Italian film, and just had to peak inside. Drawn into a tardis, taking me back in time, not only was I surrounded by red velvet cushioned chairs and old fashioned tablecloths, but I also found myself spoilt for Italian pastries. Torn over what to order and tempted by it all, it was the ricotta-filled, chocolate-lined shell of this cannolo which most caught my eye.

Cannolo (singular of cannolini) in Stresa

The rich ricotta cheese, sweetened and stuffed into the shell, was as light as a cloud, yet also densely rich with a texture that happily covered the whole inside of my mouth. This, mixed with the crunchy outer cone, was pure,= pastry bliss.

Getting back into Milan, after such a hard day’s work eating and drinking, it was time for an aperitivo, or pre dinner drink. Typical tipples for an aperitivo include bitter beverages, such as campari, vermouth or fernet. You could go for the all-out alcoholic negroni, a dangerous combo of gin, vermouth and campari, or opt for the more drinkable sbagliato.

A goblet of negroni? I think I will

Sbagliato means “mistaken” in Italian, and this drink supposedly originated from a busy bartender using sparkling wine instead of gin in a Negroni. The prosecco lightens the alcoholic load, and I had no problem sipping my way through a goblet of bitters.

Post potent-cocktails, we stumbled down the street and found what looked to be a classic neighbourhood pizzeria – Portabello. So old-school I’ve now realised it doesn’t even have a website, it’s down the road from Bar Basso at Via Plinio, 29.

Margherita pizza at Portabello

The pizzas came fresh, thin and crispy, with a whole host of toppings, from the classic quarto formaggio to the distinctly less traditional ham and pineapple. This margherita with basil was nibbled along with a caper and anchovy pizza, washed down with an €8 litre of red wine. If that’s not value, well I don’t know what is! The whole of this pizzeria was miles away from the fancy, cocktail and pizza joint Dry we had visited on our first night, but both served up exceptionally good food. This is perhaps my main reason for loving Italy as much as I do. Go to a fancy restaurant, and you’re sure to eat well. But find a local little place, where the food and wine is cheap as chips, and you know what? It’s also delicious! Lord praise good, Italian food.

Sad to leave what I’ve now know to be my the home of my gluttonous heart, I said ciao for now to this beautiful (and delicious) country. Italia…ti amo!

Leaving the romance of Rome, the next stop on my Italian tour was Elba island, where I met up with an old friend for a few days. Napolean was famously exiled to Elba, and despite it being popular among Italian tourists, the island had an air of secret about it, an undiscovered holiday gem. Crystal clear waters and sandy beaches seemed like such a contrast to the grand buildings and historical sights of Rome, and I was excited to explore.

We stayed in Capoliveri, about 30 minutes away from the main port right at the top of the islands highest peak. Winding little streets opened up onto beautiful squares, sprinkled with shops, cafes and restaurants. We rented a motorbike so could easily whizz down and around the island, and ventured into the larger area of Porto Ferraio looking for a spot of lunch.

The Italians, much like the Spanish, take lunchtime seriously, and so emerges the menu del giorno, typically a two-course lunch with wine included and a coffee as dessert (or a pud too, if your lucky). All the restaurants on the water’s front in Porto Ferraio had a lunch meal going, with everything from lasagna to lobster. We particularly fancied getting stuck into a plate of pasta and were drawn to a sweet little place with a couple of locals lunching away, where the menu offered a main dish of tagliatelle, a starter, water, wine and coffee all for €15.

Seafood starter with smoked swordfish, prawn cocktail and squid

Due to an embarrassing lack of Italian language skills, I was not entirely sure on what dishes to expect, but I was pleased to be greeted with a cold seafood starter for main, featuring a good old fashioned prawn cocktail, sliced squid and smoked swordfish. The stand out item on the plate was the swordfish. The strong smoked flavor on top of the thinly slice silky flesh was delightful, and something I had never eaten before.

The main was an all out winner; soft strands of tagliatelle retained their bite under the creamy seafood sauce, with chunks of white fish, mussels and prawns. The dish was topped with crushed pistachio which added a pleasant crunch against the pillowy pasta.

Seafood pasta for mains

The portion was enormous, particularly given that I was already a starter down, but the fresh seafood mingled in with the pasta, swimming in its own creamy sauce meant I couldn’t leave my plate alone, continuing to eat well past the point of being pleasantly full. But then, what’s one to do when on holiday in Italy if not eat excessive amounts of pasta while sipping a bit of wine? So I sat back, thanking my elasticated waistband for its comfort and my cup of coffee for its digestive properties while I soaked up the beauty of the port.

Cacciucco is a typical Tuscan fish stew, local to Elba island. Traditionally made with scrap bits of fish not grand enough to stand alone on a plate, this was a dish I had read about prior to my visit and was eager to try. Again, my lack of Italian lead me to a version of the dish probably quite far removed from its original humble beginnings.

Cacciucco (ish…)

My cacciucco came al vapore, and was certainly not a chuck-it-all-in fish dish; posh, proud prawns lay delicately in the wooden steamer, alongside meaty squid tentacles and a delicate fillet of cod. Not what I expected, this dish was a simplistic stripped back version of what I imagine to be a rich and multi-flavoured stew dish. Steaming the fish and seafood meant it’s flavor stood alone, and while it was undeniably delicious and some of the freshest seafood I have had, I would have rather it be accompanied by a tomato and saffron stew, as is the dish is traditionally served.

After such a light dinner, I was certain breakfast would be more substantial. L’Orchidea Pasticceria had caught my eye from the first drive up into Capoliveri, and on our last day on the island we broke our night’s fast and satisfied out sweet teeth with some of their fine pastries for brekkie.

Breakfast with a view

I normally don’t fancy a pastry for breakfast, but after my cream filled cornetto encounter in Rome, I had come to realise that perhaps Italian pastries were what I needed – for those mornings when only something sweet and buttery will start the day right.

Food wise, the Italian’s have got it pretty much spot on. Simple recipes, quality ingredients and a real appreciation for seasonal cooking. Oh, and Nutella. Sod the exquisite veal dishes, creamy carbonaras and crispy pizzas baked in wood ovens, it’s the Italian obsession with this chocolate hazelnut spread that attracts me most to their cuisine. What sweet item isn’t improved with a hearty spread or delicate dollop of Nutella? It’s never too early for this nut-chocolate delight to make an appearance; see exhibited in the photo below.

Can’t decide what pastry to choose? How about all of them?

The chocolate hazelnut tart topped with pine nuts was essentially Nutella baked on a pastry crust, and it was wonderful. How about a chocolate hazelnut croissant? Also delicious. Almost in fear of too much of this divine chocco spread, I balanced it all out (flavor wise, most certainly not nutritionally) with a custard raisin roll and some amaretti biscuits.

I’ll clarify that I was not hitting the hard liquor prior to midday, and what appears to be an espresso martini is actually just an iced americano. Far less fun, but definitely more socially acceptable.

The very gorgeous Isola de Elba

Elba island was beautiful in every sense; the scenery, the people, the food and its overall atmosphere make it one of the most special places I have ever visited. When your only complaint about a holiday is that the fish stew you anticipated came steamed instead of slow cooked, I think that’s the sign of a great trip!

Rome is a city that I’ve always wanted to visit; the romance, the history and overall Italian-ness of it all made it next on my list of city breaks. While in Colombia I lived with my very own Roman called Chiara, and after a year and a half apart I decided to pay her a visit in her hometown.

Chiara, a born and bred Romana, shares my interest in all things edible and exciting, and she took me on a food-filled tour of the city. After being welcomed to the city with a fantastic three-course meal at home, we started the next day with an amble around her local area of Tor Pignattara. Taking rest from Rome’s strong midday sun, we grabbed some lunch at Necci.

Necci, opened in 1924, was a favourite haunt of the famous Italian poet and filmmaker Pier Paolo Pasolini, and today serves up a menu that is focused on classic Italian recipes with a slight twist. We shared two plates, a Panzanella salad and a black rice dish with anchovies and an asparagus cream.

Posh Panzanella bread salad

The traditional Panzanella salad had undergone a modern makeover, turning up perfectly shaped and formed into a cube. Breaking into this building of bread, the soft and chewy carby bites absorbed the flavours of the vegetables and oil perfectly. The creamy ricotta was delicious in mouthfuls on its own or smeared across the deconstructed bread tower.

For the rice dish I expected a risotto-like recipe, but was pleasantly surprised with a lighter plate of al dente grains with crunchy anchovy breadcrumbs and a smooth green asparagus purée. A more flavoursome, Italian touch on the health food power bowl craze, I liked it a lot.

Black rice salad with crumbled anchovies and asparagus cream

Having practically eaten a salad for lunch (discounting the fact it was made of bread and rice), plenty of room was left for dessert. Gelato, to be more specific.

Although Rome is filled with gelaterias, finding the very best could prove a tough task for the average tourist. Luckily, my local guide took me to what she guaranteed to be some of the best the city has to offer. “But how do you know?”, I asked. Apparently it has a lot to do with the flavours. Really good ice cream parlours here will choose their flavours according to the seasons. Il Come Latte, Chiara’s gelateria of choice, not only had all the fruits of the season but many more creamy, nutty and chocolatey flavours too.

Ever eaten a cornetto ice cream cone and thought how good that little bit of chocolate is at the end? Clearly the owners at Il Come Latte have too, as they offer the option of drizzling hot melted white or dark chocolate into your cone before the ice cream is scooped in. This chocolate solidifies and becomes like a mini chocolate bar, hidden inside the wafer holding up your mound of ice cream. As well as this, they top the gelato with freshly whipped cream flavoured with vanilla, cinnamon, lemon or left plain. Oh, and then just an extra drizzle of chocolate on top too.

Ice-cream heaven has been reached

Opting for a combination of blueberry, salted caramel and hazelnut, this gelato was a thing of beauty. The three generous heaps of ice cream stacked onto of each other formed an orgy of nutty, fruity and sweet flavours with just a touch of salt. The texture was perfect – the bite and satisfaction of a quality ice cream, with a hint of the ever so moreish smoothness that the Carte D’ors and McFlurrys of the ice cream world possess.

Chiara’s love of food is clearly a family trait, as her brother is a professional chef who works at Baccano, an upmarket wine bar/restaurant in the city centre. We went to visit him to sample the drinks menu and were treated to some of the kitchens produce; mini sandwich bites with freshly baked brioche bread and hand made sausage inside. I opted for an amber spritz to drink, a sourer twist on the classic bright orange Aperol classic. Chiara enjoyed a peach Bellini – her first ever, it turned out, and it got a thorough thumbs up.

The very lovely Chiara, and our drinks and panini bites

Pizza is everywhere in Italy. But without a Dominos or Pizza Express in sight, on almost every corner you’re able to find genuine Italian pizzerias, baking in wood ovens and lacing the streets with the warm, wafting smell of thin crusts and tomato toppings. For dinner, Chiara took me to a little place called La Focaccia, where pizza options were plentiful.

You had the choice of pizza al taglio, where smaller slices are cut a larger rectangular pizza, a wafer thin larger pizza romana, or focacciotti, small individual round pizzas with puffed crusts and various toppings. Between three people, we each chose one of the smaller focacciotti pizzas; a classic margarita, one ‘alla norma‘ (with aubergine, basil and ricotta) and one with radicchio, gorgonzola and spec.

Our mini focacciotti pizzas

The charred, airy crust crumbled in my enthusiasm to tear into my mini pizza, a wonderful trio of flavours – the strong gorgonzola cheese, salty ham and tart radicchio leaves. Beer is the perfect pairing for pizza, and as I sipped a pint of freshly pulled local pale ale, I wondered why on earth I hadn’t visited Rome sooner.

Yet sadly, after just a day it was nearly time to leave to start the next leg of my Italian tour. But of course, I wasn’t going to set off without a proper breakfast in my belly. Chiara’s local neighbourhood of Torpignattara is filled with little local gems, from the freshest fruit and veg in the shop on her corner to top-notch take-out pizza and pasta joints. She took me to her favourite bakery Pasticceria Zampilli, which serves up the classic Roman breakfast: cornettos and coffee.

No, the Roman locals don’t start their day with a Wall’s ice-cream – a cornetto is a traditional Italian pastry, similar to a French croissant. They can be semplice (plain)or ripieni (filled), with popular fillings such as crema marmellata (jam) or cioccolato (Nutella). As my friend Chiara is on friendly first-name terms with the owner, we got a very special breakfast treat; a freshly baked cornetto semplice, taken into the bakery and returned with an injection of sweetened ricotta and chocolate inside.

What a way to start the day

To balance the sugar overload I choose a dark, strong espresso, but when learning I had the option to add a sweet hazelnut drizzle to it, I couldn’t refuse. This is called crema, and apparently a very popular way to sweeten coffee. As someone who never adds sugar to coffee, but absolutely passionate about hazelnuts, I think I have been converted to the sweet side.

Although the cornetto was incredibly sweet as a whole, actually the pastry itself is not, which allows for the rich filling to provide a sugar-rush to start the day. The bakery itself was filled with cakes and tarts, and I got a chance to admire the traditional roman treat of maritozzi – a cream-filled bun, that looked brilliant yet beastly.

Can anybody say cream?

Rome treated me well; beautiful buildings throughout the city, a sense of romance and fun in every area I went, fantastic company and some of the best food I’ve had in a long time mean I will most certainly return. Leaving the city though, I was headed to Pisa for a night, and then onto the Island of Elba, off the Tuscan coast. More food filled posts to come!

Finding dinner for under a tenner in London is a challenge. It’s not impossible, but it’s rare to come by a restaurant that isn’t a fried chicken joint and can offer you change for a £10 note. Certain cuisines always pop up when on the hunt for cheap eats, and a good curry house often makes an appearance. Sticking to Indian cuisine but with a slightly different take on the style of dining, last week some friends and I headed to the Indian YMCA in Euston to try their canteen.

The menu at the YMCA – who says students eat badly?!

I read about the YMCA in a Time Out review and since having returned from Sri Lanka last month, I’ve missed my daily dose of dahl and rice. The Indian YMCA canteen is open to the public, who are required to buy a dinner (or lunch) ticket before eating. This ticket is then handed over at the till before serving yourself from the small buffet selection of currys on offer, accompanied by a green salad, rice and roti. As long as you finish your plate, every guest is welcome to fill up as many times as they want. I wanted to try it all first round, so loaded my plate with the three curries on offer: chickpea, cauliflower and fish.

The cauliflower and chickpea curries on offer, accompanied by some roti bread

In true school canteen style, dessert is the very old school sweet of tinned fruit – not quite a pudding in my book, yet the idea of dessert mixed with school memories left me longing for a jam roly poly in bright yellow custard. Still, the unlimited warm milky tea on offer was well received.

As pudding is more of a novelty gesture than a real dish, more time can be spent exploring the savoury dishes on offer. The chickpea curry had a great texture; the chickpeas had retained their bite while still absorbing the subtle curried spices. The cauliflower curry was a favourite with my friends, although in my opinion it passed into quite a generic curry genre for me – vegetarian with not enough spices or interesting flavours to write about. Not bad at all, just not as strong a contender compared to the fish curry, which had meaty white fish fillets with the skin on, bathed in a thick, slightly sweet tomato sauce. This made the perfect filling for my hybrid fish roti burritos rolls, which I feel could surely be the next big food fusion trend.

My Indian YMCA eat

Comparing Sri Lankan and Indian cuisines may seem like a sweeping racial generalisation, but they do share a lot in common. Dahl, as an example, is a traditional dish to both countries. On this account, though, it’s safe to the say the Sri Lankan versions I had tried were far superior. More of a soup or accompanying sauce than anything, the YMCAs dahl is liquidy without much bite.

Is the Indian YMCA going to be the best curry of your life? No. Is the Indian YMCA a great place for a cheap dinner, with a nice friendly environment and generally good curry? Absolutely. So go, fill your plates and stomachs with some Indian canteen food for less than the cost of two London pints.

Padella in London Bridge was recently opened by the same brains behind Trullo (Ottolenghi trained chefs cooking seasonally focused Italian food). A smaller, less fancy Trullo, with no reservations taken and all dishes under a tenner, Padella does pasta in a big way.

Despite our seemingly ever-growing fear of grains, pasta is no foe in my eyes. Filling, cheap, and damn right delicious, nothing quite fills you or the need for a hearty meal like pasta. And if it’s handmade fresh before your very eyes, served alongside classic Italian starters and desserts with negronis on the menu too? All the better.

This Saturday I headed to Padella with two girlfriends to eat a pasta lunch. Making a day of it, we arrived earlier to beat the queues – you can’t reserve tables, so we came at 12 for the first sitting. We later nibbled our way around Borough Market, but before, it was time to sit and eat proper.

The restaurant itself is clean and simplistic, with a black and white theme throughout. The compact restaurant consists of ground floor and basement level, with small tables and the majority of the seats around the bars on both floors.

The menu at Padella

We looked to our waiter for starter suggestions, as although the menu in not extensive, we weren’t quite enough people to justify ordering one of everything (a crying shame, I thought). Freshly baked bread, soft burrata cheese and a plate of salami were our warm-up to the main event.

Padella sourdough & puglian olive oil, salame “Lovison” and burrata

A solid spread to sample Padella’s classic Italian offerings, the salami was smooth and creamy, with a touch of spice. Eaten alongside the soft warm bread topped with the meltingly rich burrata, these starters were a pairing made in heaven.

Using the very last bits of bread to clear up the Puglian olive oil which once covered the burrata, we were clearly ready for our mains. I had been recommend the pici cacio e pepe pasta, which I understood to be a red pepper and cheese pasta; interesting, I thought. In fact, this dish was no more than noodle-esque spaghetti coated in melted cheese and black pepper. While it sounds very much like my university meal of choice, this was a world away from the basic overcooked penne with cheddar, butter and salt I ate far too often in student years.

Pici cacio e pepe in the limelight, looking deceptively like worms

Despite its worm-like appearance, my pasta was perfectly cooked with just the right bite and a smooth, silken texture. The simplistic cheese and black pepper was almost all this pasta needed. I added salt, but then I like my food on the red-sea side of seasoned. The girls both went for the pappardelle pasta with 8-hour Dexter beef shin ragu, a dish on the menu of Trullo which has made it over. The pappardelle resembled longer, thinner lasagna sheets, and the rich tomato beef sauce nestled its way into the folds of these pasta ribbons, all topped with thinly shaved Parmesan cheese.

Padella lives up to its great reviews. Friendly staff, accessible prices and pared-back traditional Italian food done right is a recipe for a winning restaurant. I’ll be returning without a doubt to try the rest of the mains, and also to taste their sweet tarts.

However on this occasion, my sweet spot was met in Borough Market, just next door to Padella. Wandering around after lunch, despite my savory belly being full to the brim with pasta, my sweet section was on the look out for it’s next bite. When I saw a woman with a half eaten doughnut in her hand, eyes closed, mouth covered in sugar and exhaling noises of sheer delight, I felt my sweet treat could be in the vicinity. Asking her what thing of beauty she had eaten, she spoke through a mouthful of doughnut and told me to head to Bread Ahead Bakery.

Hazelnut & Praline doughnut

Although I’ve never been huge on doughnuts, when I come to think about it, I wonder…why? A sweet, fluffy bread with a gooey, sugary centre. An invention of genius! Sweeping past the regular old jam options, hovering over a lemon curd choice, I ultimately went for the hazelnut & praline filled doughnut- the size of a small rodent, I should add.

No words, just doughnut

And all too soon I was that woman who I had spoken to five minutes earlier, stood in the middle of the market, mouth sugared and hands filled with this delicious doughnut.

Despite being a doughnut down, I couldn’t resist popping into Portena to pick up an alfajor, the biscuit sandwich filled with dulce de leche that stole my heart during my year in Buenos Aires. In what turned out to be a bit of an Argentine themed pit stop later on in the day, we stopped for a bottle of the countries Malbec at Gordon’s wine bar, and it seemed only right to bring out my biccy…

Alfajores y malbec…como si estuviera en Buenos Aires de vuelta!

After another bottle of booze and yet more food, we decided it was time to put an end to the day’s indulgence. But go, induldge away, in all the pasta your heart desires (and belly can fit) at Padella, because it is fantastic.

Moving away from the small town of Ella and onto Sri Lanka’s second largest city, we reached Kandy, the capital of culture. The city centers around a large lake and on the lake’s edges stands the impressive Temple of the Sacred Tooth temple, home to a molar from the mouth of the very Buddha himself.

Eager to get our own teeth into some of Kandy’s culinary offerings, we hunted down the central market. A mix of meat, spices and more teas than I had ever seen before, friendly stall owners invited us to smell and sample their goods, with many enticing Ayurvedic beauty products too. We stocked up on spices, buying sweet cinnamon bark in bulk and sniffing our way around the huge array of curry mixes on offer.

Spices at Kandy market

After spending what felt like hours in the whirlwind of smells and sights within the market, we moved onto a popular local spot for lunch. The Kandy Muslim Hotel is not a place offering accommodation and is not particularly Islamic either. No religion, or lodging, but instead, some of the best food in Kandy, eaten in a busy café right on the main road.

Serving buttery, pillowy roti breads with sweet and creamy cinnamon dahl, customers quenched their thirst slurping down avocado lassis and fresh lime juice while selecting from a pick and mix of savoury pasties and bread being brought round to each table. Famous for its kottu, a dish of day-old roti, finely chopped and cooked with vegetables and meat on a hot plate, we ordered three portions.

Kottu for three?

Three portions were enough to feed a family of six, and despite all the willing in the world, I was defeated. Not too quickly, though…I still made an impressive dent in this dish, which was a textural mix of soft and crispy roti strips, combined with golden roasted chicken and vegetables.

One of my favourite things about Sri Lankan food is their style of eating. I envision the ‘one pot dish’ to be a crime in their eyes, as each meal I ate came with at least three dishes, all made to be mixed and eaten together, shared amongst your other dining companions. This culture of mixing various plates comes to its absolute peak at the almighty curry buffet. In truth, with a tendency to cook large amounts and such a variety of dishes, almost every meal in Sri Lanka was like a buffet. It’s really just the difference between a Sri Lankan and a greedy Brit that earns these meals their ‘buffet’ title.

Being the aforementioned greedy Brit, I reached a true glutton’s paradise at the infamous Sharon Inn dinner buffet. Contradicting the age-old buffet mantra ‘quantity over quality’, every single dish on offer was delicious in its own way, a feast of flavours, textures and food types. Smooth, velvety chard with desiccated coconut sat next to a slow-cooked and richly spiced dish of jackfruit, a fruit that when cooked takes on an almost disconcertingly lamb-like appearance, soaking up the intense curry flavours of turmeric, chilli, cinnamon and cumin flavours like a greedy, fruity sponge.

Jackfruit curry

Aubergine came cut into fine julienne strips, cooked in a sweet and sour style sauce which was sticky and dark, contrasting with a bright yellow mango curry which was light and tangy. Radish and banana leaves featured in curry dishes too, as well as green beans and yellow peppers. Fresh naan and hoppers were brought out throughout the meal, and I made a sterling effort to squeeze them in alongside the other twelve dishes on offer.

Sharon Inn curry buffet

Vegetable curries completely stole the show, leaving little need for the one token meat (chicken) dish on offer. This is a point that bears repeating; Sri Lankan cuisine is a dream for vegetarians. With such inventive use of all fruits and vegetables, Sri Lankan food is bursting with options for a meat-free diet.

Yet despite an abundance of meat-free meals throughout the trip, we ended our holiday with a seafood feast. Back in Colombo for our final night before the flight home, we paid a visit to The Ministry of Crab. Highly regarded as one of the best restaurants in Colombo, there’ll be no prize given for guessing their speciality.

Crab is, of course, their dish of the day, with customers choosing the desired size of their crustacean for consumption. You are then a given the option of which sauce you’d like it cooked in. Having eaten a fair amount of spice over our trip, we veered towards a garlic sauce without chilli. Garlicky enough to keep vampires at bay but not a touch too much, the garlic flavour melted in with mounds of extra virgin olive oil and together this mix of flavours sat perfectly on top of the crab.

Sri Lankan prawn curry

With an enormous crab to share, naturally, we felt the need to order yet another dish. The prawn curry came with impressive, almost lobster-like king prawns, cooked in a coconut curry sauce and served with freshly baked slices of bread. The prawns had a perfect, firm texture, yet for my very last meal on this earth, I may well just request a load of bread and the sauce these prawns were cooked in. A mix of coconut, large amounts of oil, gentle curry spices combined with lots of garlic and soft onions made for an all-around blow-out of a dish.

All in all, I could not have asked for a better holiday. Two weeks was a wonderful amount of time to travel around, and while we by no means covered the whole country, we managed a relaxing and fascinating mix of city, culture, beach and nature. To anyone thinking of going to Sri Lanka, this is a country with so much to offer. So go travel, eat and cook, and try for yourself all the incredible tastes of Sri Lanka.

Sat high up in Sri Lankan’s hill country, the air in Ella feels different to the warm breeze on the south beaches, and a world away from the thick hot smog of the capital Colombo. A cooler climate and rolling green hills make Ella a popular stop for tourists, keen to sample the country’s finest tea and hike up into mountains where it is grown.

The rolling hills of Ella

Home stays are popular all over Sri Lanka and in Ella, staying with a family is the perfect way to explore and taste the town. Friendly families arrange everything from your climbs to your meals, and the whole experience feels far more personal than that in larger hotels or guest houses.

We stayed at Restful Inn and were the sole occupants – it has only one room! Upon arrival our host family helped us head straight out to a green tea plantation, where we learnt about the process of making green tea – did you know it comes from the same leaf as your regular cup of builders? Both green and black tea originate from the same plant, but what differentiates them is the process used to obtain the tea we drink.

Tea tasting at the green tea plantation

As well as trips around the town, the family catered our evening meals for us and served up a typical Sri Lankan breakfast. As seen in my previous post, hoppers are thin, bowl-shaped pancakes which are often eaten alongside lentil dahl in the mornings. The hoppers at our home stay were by far the best of the trip. The came either plain, wafer thin with a sweet, coconut flavour, or with egg, a combination of the perfectly cooked egg inside this thin delicate pancake.

Like a perfect poached egg, inside a pancake – oh, yes.

Beautiful breakfasts

Eating al fresco, staring out into the wild greenery and nature that surrounded the house, I’ve certainly had breakfast in far uglier places. First meal of the day down, surely in a few hours it’d be time for a snack?

When elevensies called, we took a stop at The Curd Shop. An uninspired name but doing exactly what it says on the packet, this was supposedly the best place to sample the Sri Lankan sweet of choice – curd and treacle.

Curd and treacle at The Curd Shop, Ella

Much like Greek yogurt and honey but with a tarter yogurt and sweeter honey, I ate a lot of curd in the two weeks away. Some of it veered dangerously towards a distinctly savory feta-tasting cheese, with a questionable, slightly clumpy texture, although on the whole the thick creamy curd was a favourite dessert or morning snack of our holiday.

Another culinary highlight of Ella town was our lunchtime stop at The Downtown Roti Shop. Roti is a soft, buttery thin bread similar to a flatbread. Pol roti, made from coconut flour, is a popular breakfast item, yet the larger and thinner pancake-type rotis are seen more commonly; perfect for scooping up curry or for wrapping around a whole array of fillings.

The roti station – where the magic happens

At the Roti hut, you could see the dough being stretched out and made right in front of you. This would be the rotis used for all the wraps, with a variety of fillings, from beef and prawn all the way to veg-friendly avocado and cheese. As well as roti wraps, another popular plate here was kottu; day-old roti, cut up into thin strips and cooked on a hot plate with vegetables and eggs, with the option to add in meat. My sister chose a vegetable kottu while I went for a chicken roti – a doughy yet crispy roti, filled with slightly mashed curried potato, mixed in with strips of chicken.

My sister’s vegetable kottu

A chicken roti wrap

Essentially a chicken wrap, I think this could well have been up in my favourite eats of the entire holiday. Filled to the brim with a mix of textures and flavours, this roti, once wrapped, was placed back on the hot plate to seal and cement all the flavours together. With Sri Lankan food becoming more popular in the UK, I predict a big roti trend coming our way soon (and I will be the first to tuck in!).

With ‘rice and curry’ as the national dish, Sri Lankan food, at first glance, doesn’t reveal much to the foreign palate. But this is no anglicized chicken korma affair. Think of a jackfruit curry with a surprisingly meaty texture, or a lentil dahl spiced with sweet cinnamon and cooked in coconut cream, piled on top of sweet, yet ever so slightly charred, soft roti bread.

These, along with many other dishes, form a cuisine that is both richly spiced yet soothing and comforting, which at each meal allows itself the chance the present three or four dishes, made to be shared and eaten in company. I was lucky enough to head to Sri Lanka on a two week holiday with my mum and sister.

After arriving in the countries capital of Colombo after a long flight and unsure whether it was lunch, breakfast or dinner, the three Bidmead’s ordered a distinctly odd array of dishes for our first bite to eat. Porridge for my mum, a banana roti for myself and a vegetable kottu for my sister.

Vegetable Kottu

By far the most interesting of all three, kottu is chopped up roti bread (a roti is similar to a flatbread) mixed with either egg, fish, meat or vegetables. It’s similar to egg-fried rice if the rice was replaced with small slices of flat bread, and the whole thing was bursting with spices.

With just a day in Colombo, I made sure we made it down the Galle Park pier for sunset. An expansive stretch of green on the sea, this charming spot fills up on a Sunday evening with families, couples and kite flyers, but more to my interest…a truckload of food vendors too. Selling typical street food, known as short eats, it was the perfect place to gain more insight into Sri Lankan cuisine.

Fresh crabs and fried prawn cakes filled the glass cabinets of the street food carts, as well as richly spiced fruits (think pineapple with chili and mango with salt) sold from huts behind.

Fresh crab and fried prawn and sweet potato pancakes

As we sat down at a barbecue shack with tables and chairs, I admired their fresh seafood, marinated in a wealth of spices, ready for the barbecue. The meaty menu options caught my eye too; my offal enthusiasm seemed to be shared by the Sri Lankans, as waiting to hit the grill were trays of tripe, prepped in herbs, onions, and spices.

A tray full of tripey goodness

After having a rest from a day walking in the fierce sun and heat, we decided for our first dinner we’d opt for a taste of the North. We sadly wouldn’t have time to make it up to the Jaffna, one of Sri Lanka’s biggest Northern towns, but thought as second best, we’d at least be able to give the cuisine a go.

Famous for their curried crab, Yaal Restaurant was a very casual, low-key local diner, where no dish cost over £4. Knowing we had to order crab but otherwise feeling quite overwhelmed by the amount of dishes to choose from, options ranged from savoury curried porridge to devilled kidneys and livers.

Jaffna style crab, cooked in a spicy curry sauce

Fiddly to eat (as all crab is), we wasted no time in cracking, sucking and biting our way into this curried crustacean. A hot and spicy dish, the crab was slightly cooled by the rich coconut milk in which it was cooked, and this sauce had us all slurping away to the very last mouthful. Along with the crab, we ordered a cuttlefish pitthu, with bears some resemblance to egg fried rice, yet instead of rice the grains are actually made out of rice flour, mixed with spices and steamed in a banana leaf.

Two prawn paratha plates, top right is the cuttlefish pitthu and bottom rigtht, Jaffna style crab

The wraps were parata flat breads filled with crispy prawns and served with dahl and a curried coconut sauce and were a great mix of crunchy prawns wrapped in the soft, doughy bread. Northern Sri Lankan food is typically spicier than that of the south, and for a first meal in Sri Lanka, I realised I would have to get my spice tolerance up for the duration of the trip!

From Colombo, it was onto Galle, an old Colonial town down in the South. Keep reading for the next Sri Lankan Travel BidmeadBites!

My experience of Spanish food in London has never been great. Sad jugs of overly sweet sangria and soggy patatas bravas, drowning beneath a mound of flavourless chopped tomatoes is hardly inspiring. It always fared pale in comparison to the simple, pared back, yet impeccably executed traditional tapas I grew accustomed to eating on family holidays to the small Andalusian town where my grandparents retired. But last week, that all changed – I ate at Barrafina.

With three London locations, Barrafina does not accept reservations, so you should be prepared to wait. I had tried to visit the Frith Street branch once before, but after being told it’d be two and a half hours before I could sit down, my rumbling stomach and I went elsewhere. This time, I arrived less hungry and more determined. An hour’s wait? With pleasure.

Serving up simple, classic Spanish dishes, ranging from the famous tortilla – Time Out’s 10th best London dish of 2015 – to the hispanic black pudding morcilla, Barrafina is more than worth the wait. Friendly staff (all Spanish speaking) advise you on the menu and keep the bustling bar running smoothly as you agonise over what to order. If bottomless wallets and stomachs existed, I would still be propped at the bar.

However, with only so much cash to spend and an impressive, yet not invincible appetite, we ordered a solid, varied spread. Opting for a mix of the characteristically carby traditional tapas options (the beiger the better), we went for meat and fish dishes too, with a pudding to share.

Pan con tomate

If it’s wrong to say that this plate above, toast and tomatoes and very little else, was my favourite dish of the entire meal, well…I don’t want to be right. The sweet, tomato sauce is slightly tinged with garlic, providing this bready bite with a wonderfully contrasting savoury taste, enhanced by the addition of salt and a sprinkling of chopped parsley on top.

Ordering the Spanish tortilla was a given, and even when presented with variations (one with prawn and one with ham), I knew it has to be la classica. Sitting by the bar, you can admire the chefs at work, creating this small yet perfectly formed dish. Brown and golden on the outside but meltingly soft in the middle, this is yet another dish that uses minimal ingredients, but used to their best potential to create an exceptional result.

For the gambas al ajillo, I took nose-to-tail eating onto seafood, quite literally devouring them from ears to end. Salty, meaty and served with thin slices of chilli, to have left any part of the prawn uneaten just seemed wasteful.

Tortilla classica and gambas al ajillo

Barrfina do a brilliant job at quashing the myth that pork has to be cooked right through, as they serve their pluma ibérica bloody and rare…so much so, I thought it was beef. This particular cut comes from the shoulder of the loin, and when left medium rare as it was, the outside caramelises while the inside is left a glorious red, the marbling fat left to melt into itself. This results in an incredibly tender pork dish – a far cry from the tough, grey pork chops I remember from my childhood (sorry, mum).

My love of offal is no secret – from genitals in Colombia, duck liver in Berlin and some hearty (literally) skewers in Buenos Aires, it’s been well documented. Alongside organs, I’ve really got a thing for black pudding, and seeing my old friend morcilla on the menu at Barrafina made me all nostalgic for my beef-filled days in Buenos Aires, where I reckon I single handedly upped my local butchers sales of this beautiful blood sausage by at least 50%.

Morcilla ibérica topped with quails eggs

This morcilla ibérica was served on top of roasted red peppers and wore a hat made of tiny, baby quails eggs. A visually stunning plate, I was slightly disappointed at the actual amount of sausage given in a portion. Now don’t tell the Spanish speaker in me that ‘small plates’ is very much the point, and definition of tapas. I am aware. But two bites of morcilla? That’s just a bit mean. Portion size aside, the morcilla was rich, as you’d imagine a sausage made of blood would be, but actually with a taste far more like a smoky chorizo than the rice-filled Spanish morcilla I’ve eaten in Spain. And while I love smoky chorizo and its peppery pimentón flavour, it’s not quite what I’m expecting when I opt for my beloved blood sausage. All the same, this morcilla was marvellous…I’d perhaps just like to have eaten a bit more of it.

Other items we ordered included the patatas bravas, so very unlike the description of the sad and soggy potatoes I opened this post with. Served on the side rather than on top of the potatoes, the sauce was a fluffy cloud of roasted red pepper puree; I’m now concerned that any tomato condiment eaten on future sides of chips will never compare.

For dessert we chose a crema catalana to share, the Spanish cousin of the French creme brûlée. Just like the kids at school who seem all tough on the outside but are just big softies underneath, as we cracked into this dessert’s hard, caramelised outer layer, our spoons were met with warm and creamy custard below.

This meal between two, with a bottle of wine to share, was £40 a head. For the quality of food, so good that tomatoes on toast taste better than far fancier dishes at other restaurants I’ve eaten at, I think it’s good value. Maybe not what you’re looking to spend on every meal out, but then you’re probably not keen on queuing for an hour every time either. So find a friend who appreciates good food, have a little snack beforehand to see you through the wait, and go to Barrafina. Because it is really, really rico.